Ballade Sports Double Carbon OEM Style Hardtop Review
01-25-2016, 04:47 PM
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Ballade Sports Double Carbon OEM Style Hardtop Review
HUGE UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE READ BELOW
This review is well overdue on my part, I've just been so busy with work, life, and moving (from Chicago to California) that I had to put this on the back-burner for awhile but I did want to share my experience with Ballade and their hardtop with fellow S2000 owners.
I'll start with why I chose to get the Ballade Sports OEM hardtop; I did my fair share of research and it seemed to be a great product by a very reputable company. Honestly, the OEM rear glass was also one of my major deciding factors as well. I just figured that since they used OEM glass and had a great reputation online, there was no way I could go wrong but that unfortunately was not how everything went.
I originally purchased the hardtop off Ballade's website on 11/21/14. Four days later, I did not even receive a shipping confirmation email or any updates since they sent me an automated receipt for the purchase. I had to reach out to them for an update (already off on the wrong foot). They reply that same day and notify me that they will be shipping it out the following day and will send me an email with the tracking number shortly after. Another four days go by, no response and no tracking number. I have to reach out to them yet again to which they NEVER even bothered to reply to!!
Regardless, the hardtop came around a week or so after my last email. I was super excited so I wrote off the poor customer service and communication from Ballade but that excitement ended pretty quickly after I found multiple scratches and scuffs on my brand new hardtop.
I was pretty disappointed with the product so I reached out to Ballade to see if they could do anything about it. Unfortunately, there was no way of returning it so I just kind of had to deal with it (they would make me pay for shipping which I was not willing to lose 300 dollars over something that was not my fault). For the cosmetic imperfections, they offered to give me a discount on a future purchase (Great, I have to spend MORE money to make this right? What a joke...)
The worst part was the fitment though, it fits significantly "tighter" on the passenger side compared to the drivers side. I spent days trying to get it to line up correctly and had some friends help but never had any luck with it. Originally, I was using the stock latches to secure the hardtop from the front (which Ballade stated would work on their hardtop) but I couldn't get the passenger side to lock in (it would making cracking noises when I tried to latch it down because it was so tight, whereas the driver side latched on with no problems). The gap from the window to the hardtop is much bigger on the drivers side than the passenger side. The top of the window even hits the hardtop on the passenger side! When I contacted Ballade about the new issues that I ran into, they proved to not be much of any help at all and just told me that my window had to be aligned (seriously?! Would should I have to rip my door panel apart and adjust my window for your hardtop?!). They also told me that I could try purchasing their front brackets and that they would refund me for them (WHICH THEY NEVER EVEN DID!!) and the funny thing is that THEIR OWN brackets did not line up with the screw holes on the hardtop!!! The hardtop even leaks in the rain and has air leaks in several spots!
Roughly 8 months into owning the hardtop, the clear coat faded in two spots! I don't even daily my car plus it was ALWAYS garaged, how does clear coat fade that quickly? I had to take it to a body shop to have it re-cleared and have them paint parts of it to cover up imperfections.
Overall, I would personally pass on the Ballade Sports hardtop, it was a terrible decision on my part.
TLDR;
Very poor customer service and extremely disappointing product. AVOID AT ALL COSTS WOULD BE MY ADVICE.
Side Note; I'll try to dig up some photos and post them up.
UPDATE:
As I'm sure most of you have already seen, Matt from Ballade responded to this thread (see below if you didn't catch it before). I PM'd Matt and he was extremely understanding, apologetic, and even offered a solution to all of the issues that I've run into. He said that Ballade found out about the problems that their initial hardtops had soon after the first few were sold (one of which was mine) and took the appropriate steps to address all of those issues with their latest version (blueprint commented below that he has seen a bunch that all looked good to him, likely because they are all from a different mold, not the one that mine was based off of). The main issues that were corrected from the original version included different clear-coating and a new mold for the hardtop itself so that fitment was on point. The weave pattern even appears to flow much better and cleaner with this new version.
The solution that Matt offered was for me to swing by their shop and exchange my current hardtop for a brand new one with all new seals and even a refund for the front brackets (since they promised me that in the past). Matt even offered to have them install the new top for me. I seriously can't thank Matt enough for pulling through on this and making everything right in the end. I truly appreciate a company that stands behind their products like Ballade did for me. I stopped by their shop this morning for the exchange and Matt made the whole process completely painless. He has exceptional customer service skills and is a man of his word. He made sure that I was totally happy with the new hardtop. Thanks for everything, Matt!!
TLDR;
Matt from Ballade pulled through, big time!! He offered to exchange my hardtop for a brand new one with new seals and a refund on my front brackets. I took them up on the offer and picked up the new top this morning. Seriously awesome that Matt addressed my issues and corrected the situation. Now that's customer service and a company that stands behind their products.
This review is well overdue on my part, I've just been so busy with work, life, and moving (from Chicago to California) that I had to put this on the back-burner for awhile but I did want to share my experience with Ballade and their hardtop with fellow S2000 owners.
I'll start with why I chose to get the Ballade Sports OEM hardtop; I did my fair share of research and it seemed to be a great product by a very reputable company. Honestly, the OEM rear glass was also one of my major deciding factors as well. I just figured that since they used OEM glass and had a great reputation online, there was no way I could go wrong but that unfortunately was not how everything went.
I originally purchased the hardtop off Ballade's website on 11/21/14. Four days later, I did not even receive a shipping confirmation email or any updates since they sent me an automated receipt for the purchase. I had to reach out to them for an update (already off on the wrong foot). They reply that same day and notify me that they will be shipping it out the following day and will send me an email with the tracking number shortly after. Another four days go by, no response and no tracking number. I have to reach out to them yet again to which they NEVER even bothered to reply to!!
Regardless, the hardtop came around a week or so after my last email. I was super excited so I wrote off the poor customer service and communication from Ballade but that excitement ended pretty quickly after I found multiple scratches and scuffs on my brand new hardtop.
I was pretty disappointed with the product so I reached out to Ballade to see if they could do anything about it. Unfortunately, there was no way of returning it so I just kind of had to deal with it (they would make me pay for shipping which I was not willing to lose 300 dollars over something that was not my fault). For the cosmetic imperfections, they offered to give me a discount on a future purchase (Great, I have to spend MORE money to make this right? What a joke...)
The worst part was the fitment though, it fits significantly "tighter" on the passenger side compared to the drivers side. I spent days trying to get it to line up correctly and had some friends help but never had any luck with it. Originally, I was using the stock latches to secure the hardtop from the front (which Ballade stated would work on their hardtop) but I couldn't get the passenger side to lock in (it would making cracking noises when I tried to latch it down because it was so tight, whereas the driver side latched on with no problems). The gap from the window to the hardtop is much bigger on the drivers side than the passenger side. The top of the window even hits the hardtop on the passenger side! When I contacted Ballade about the new issues that I ran into, they proved to not be much of any help at all and just told me that my window had to be aligned (seriously?! Would should I have to rip my door panel apart and adjust my window for your hardtop?!). They also told me that I could try purchasing their front brackets and that they would refund me for them (WHICH THEY NEVER EVEN DID!!) and the funny thing is that THEIR OWN brackets did not line up with the screw holes on the hardtop!!! The hardtop even leaks in the rain and has air leaks in several spots!
Roughly 8 months into owning the hardtop, the clear coat faded in two spots! I don't even daily my car plus it was ALWAYS garaged, how does clear coat fade that quickly? I had to take it to a body shop to have it re-cleared and have them paint parts of it to cover up imperfections.
Overall, I would personally pass on the Ballade Sports hardtop, it was a terrible decision on my part.
TLDR;
Very poor customer service and extremely disappointing product. AVOID AT ALL COSTS WOULD BE MY ADVICE.
Side Note; I'll try to dig up some photos and post them up.
UPDATE:
As I'm sure most of you have already seen, Matt from Ballade responded to this thread (see below if you didn't catch it before). I PM'd Matt and he was extremely understanding, apologetic, and even offered a solution to all of the issues that I've run into. He said that Ballade found out about the problems that their initial hardtops had soon after the first few were sold (one of which was mine) and took the appropriate steps to address all of those issues with their latest version (blueprint commented below that he has seen a bunch that all looked good to him, likely because they are all from a different mold, not the one that mine was based off of). The main issues that were corrected from the original version included different clear-coating and a new mold for the hardtop itself so that fitment was on point. The weave pattern even appears to flow much better and cleaner with this new version.
The solution that Matt offered was for me to swing by their shop and exchange my current hardtop for a brand new one with all new seals and even a refund for the front brackets (since they promised me that in the past). Matt even offered to have them install the new top for me. I seriously can't thank Matt enough for pulling through on this and making everything right in the end. I truly appreciate a company that stands behind their products like Ballade did for me. I stopped by their shop this morning for the exchange and Matt made the whole process completely painless. He has exceptional customer service skills and is a man of his word. He made sure that I was totally happy with the new hardtop. Thanks for everything, Matt!!
TLDR;
Matt from Ballade pulled through, big time!! He offered to exchange my hardtop for a brand new one with new seals and a refund on my front brackets. I took them up on the offer and picked up the new top this morning. Seriously awesome that Matt addressed my issues and corrected the situation. Now that's customer service and a company that stands behind their products.
01-25-2016, 07:21 PM
#2
That is a major disappointment indeed. To think that they have a reputable place in the S2000 community is no longer a suitable ideology to keep, after reading your review. One of the major problems with aftermarket hardtops is fitment...from your descriptions it sounds like it was WAY off.
Of course, no rep parts are perfect (even authentic parts lol) but it shouldn't be off by that much. To me the worst part is they tried to put it off as nothing and took absolutely no effort to help. That is just plain pathetic.
Pictures would definitely help justifying what you are going through. Best of luck with the top.
Of course, no rep parts are perfect (even authentic parts lol) but it shouldn't be off by that much. To me the worst part is they tried to put it off as nothing and took absolutely no effort to help. That is just plain pathetic.
Pictures would definitely help justifying what you are going through. Best of luck with the top.
01-25-2016, 08:34 PM
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That is a major disappointment indeed. To think that they have a reputable place in the S2000 community is no longer a suitable ideology to keep, after reading your review. One of the major problems with aftermarket hardtops is fitment...from your descriptions it sounds like it was WAY off.
Of course, no rep parts are perfect (even authentic parts lol) but it shouldn't be off by that much. To me the worst part is they tried to put it off as nothing and took absolutely no effort to help. That is just plain pathetic.
Pictures would definitely help justifying what you are going through. Best of luck with the top.
Of course, no rep parts are perfect (even authentic parts lol) but it shouldn't be off by that much. To me the worst part is they tried to put it off as nothing and took absolutely no effort to help. That is just plain pathetic.
Pictures would definitely help justifying what you are going through. Best of luck with the top.
I'll try to dig up some pictures tomorrow from when I initially got it. I had the body shop try to correct the fitment when I was having it re-cleared but it's still off. The body shop ended up having to modify the rare brackets as well as the fronts to get the best fitment possible but even so the passenger window hits the hardtop.
01-25-2016, 08:37 PM
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Haven't seen any others in person but I do believe I was one of the first back in 2014 so very possible that they have gotten better since then. I'm just disappointed all together though because they even dropped the ball on the one thing that they could have completely controlled in the situation, their customer service. I was never made whole for all of the issues that I had to deal with and I feel like it's unfair to me, especially hearing that others have had good experience with what should be the same product being that I paid the same price plus the cost of re-clearing!
01-25-2016, 11:27 PM
#7
I have heard before that their tops are made by Karbon Haus. KH used to be a vendor on here, im not sure why they are not anymore. I know on Facebook there reviews are hit and miss. Regardless, sorry for your problems. Thats and expensive piece to waste money on.
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01-26-2016, 03:52 AM
#9
Roughly 8 months into owning the hardtop, the clear coat faded in two spots! I don't even daily my car plus it was ALWAYS garaged, how does clear coat fade that quickly? I had to take it to a body shop to have it re-cleared and have them paint parts of it to cover up imperfections.
I highly doubt the hardtop came from ballade with a clear coat. I have another brand replica hard top and the gel coating didnt last long either. Here's a quote directly from the order page.
Also, this as well as most carbon fiber products are considered unfinished, it is always recommended to have carbon fiber products clear coated to achieve an overall best look. Minimal fogging of finish, fish eyes, imperfect weaves will be visible until paint or clear coat has been applied.
01-26-2016, 08:34 AM
#10
Wow, I was debating between Ballade and Forbidden for my Hardtop, after this review, I will contact Forbidden instead, not worth all the hassle.
If they are indeed made by Karbon Haus, then more reason to stay away, I have not heard anything positive from those guys (Fitment and Customer service wise), they are a joke, they were banned from this forum and also banned from all the Facebook pages, they keep signing up with new accounts to scam more people. bunch of morons...
If they are indeed made by Karbon Haus, then more reason to stay away, I have not heard anything positive from those guys (Fitment and Customer service wise), they are a joke, they were banned from this forum and also banned from all the Facebook pages, they keep signing up with new accounts to scam more people. bunch of morons...
